Wed, 16 Oct 2002

author Tim	location John O'Groats, Caithness, Scotland
posted 18:08 BST 17/10/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Scotland 2 ( all photos )

Top o' the Mainland ( 7 photos )
Time to update the journal again - skipping days is generally bad news. First yesterday, then a separate entry for today.
Driving north from Braemar yesterday, we went through some amazingly foggy ski areas, including Lecht. They're not in use yet (still no snow sighted), but it's clear from how many there are that they do get used a lot fairly shortly.
Stopping and grabbing a pizza at a newly-opened Safeway for lunch in Inverness, we had a bit of a look around the town that gave its name to the street where we used to live. A fairly un-notable place, it sits beautifully on some great pieces of water - obviously Loch Ness on one side and Moray Firth on the other. Very scenic when the weather is willing, as it was. Then it wasn't. Then it was. etc.
We followed a similar route north that we did last time we came through here, but this time heading towards the North-West corner of the Scottish mainland.
A drive out on a tiny little road to the coastal town of Sheigra on the Eastern coast was supposed to locate us a place to stay for the night. Great scenery all around the Lochs, but nothing besides a B&B closed for the night and a hotel wanting to charge us £45 per person, or roughly $270 for the night. Back in the car quick smart.
The next possibility was Durness, up on the North coast. Despite only discovering half the town (very hilly here making it quite confusing), we still were quite happy with our accommodation and meal. The meal was at the local "Lounge Bar" - a dimly-lit table overlooking the sea. Lovely. Accommodation was provided at the Parkhill Hotel, recently renovated.
We made a mad dash back to watch The Bill (it's become compulsory viewing over here) at our hotel, where the friendly girl running the place told us that they were prediciting possible snow over-night. That's the first thing that Liz looked for in the morning, but none was sighted. Won't be long...

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